April 30, 2024
Finally about to pedal; Actau; 30th April
It’ll be three weeks tomorrow since we turned up at my uncle’s house in Osaka. We had almost two weeks in Japan off the bike, and then flew to Almaty.
Video I took about an hour east from Almaty, somewhere over western China. Stunning mountains.
Almaty seems like a very pleasant place to live. Good food, well connected and quick bus and tram system, friendly people and a public bath house. Like Japan, this involved being completely naked, but the main event is a sauna, and not a bath. You could also get treatments like being thrashed with a large, fragrant (maybe eucalyptus) branch.
When we started looking at the first few days of riding from Almaty, I realised that some of the passes that looked appealingwould not be passable at this time of year due to the snow. Coupled with the fact that we would be cycling in the western part of the country in July, when it would be very hot. With this in mind, we decided to fly to Aqtau and do the route in reverse.
It was a hassle located a new cardboard box, packing the bike against, and it was not a cheap change of plan in both time and money, but hopefully one we won’t regret.
We’ve had a few nights in Actau now, one more than planned, due to recovery from a heavy cold.
It seems like a resort city, with high rise apartments
I’m looking forward to finally getting back on the bike and heading east.
in preparation for the next leg, I’ve found my friend Hugh’s journal and another one very useful: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=24377; https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=3d2&page_id=323251&v=fh&src=page_next
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